Metro Business; Crazy Eddie Profits Sought

Published: July 16, 1998

NEWARK—
A Federal judge ordered several members of the family of ''Crazy Eddie'' Antar yesterday to turn over more than $27 million they made from artificially inflated stock in the electronics store chain.

The judge, Harold A. Ackerman of United States District Court in Newark, called the insider trading case ''the last chapter in a story of a family and its deception of the public.''

The insider trading case, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is probably the last chance for the authorities to recover money for thousands of investors in the chain known for its frenzied commercials touting ''insane'' prices.

Investors lost at least $145.9 million when the Crazy Eddie chain collapsed in 1987, a judge has ruled. At least $120 million has been recovered, most of it from bank accounts the founder, Eddie Antar, kept around the globe. In yesterday's ruling, Eddie Antar's father, Sam M. Antar; his brother Allen Antar, and a brother-in-law, Benjamin Kuszer, were told to turn over the money they made selling Crazy Eddie stock between 1984 and 1987.

Sam Antar made $19.5 million from the stock, Judge Ackerman ruled, while Allen Antar received $3.9 million and Mr. Kuszer got over $1 million. The judge also ordered the family to turn over $3.5 million that Eddie Antar made by selling stock on behalf of six of his relatives.